Montgomery Case Law: Adapting To Informed Consent

Introduction
It has long been established that every doctor has a duty of care towards their patient. Therefore, a doctor will have breached their duty if they have been found to be negligent during the course of treating the patient. A breach of duty can arise in the form of being careless in the way that they treated a patient or in failing to alert them to any risks associated with procedures, which will be the focal point of this essay. It will identify how the law has changed in regards to the standard of care that should be offered to patients and whether it has succeeded in finding an appropriate balance between what the doctor thinks that the patient should know and what the patient actually wants to know in light of the Montgomery case. …show more content…
Next, the previous and existing case law relating to informed consent will be looked at, examining the pros and cons to each of the tests laid out in them. It will then move on to focus on how Montgomery eradicated these problems, but also with it still contained some issues such as the objective reasonable manner in which the needs of each individual patient is judged. By reviewing cases, past and recent, it is hoped that there will be a clear comparison as to what tests have been successful in satisfying the conflicting struggles that arise in regards to both factors and overall it will be argued that the Montgomery case seems to have perfectly balanced the way in which good medical practice can be carried out whilst protecting and respecting patient